Taurus 24/7 review

Hello all,

It has been some time since I put up a handgun review, so I thought I would put one together on a recent arrival. My reviews have more information than a lot of others you will see, so if you only like very short posts, this won't be for you. If however you do like a lot of information, please read on....

The following is a review about my latest acquisition - a Taurus PT 24/7 Pro DS in 9mm. I went into the gunshop looking for a particular Kimber that they did not have, and since I didn't want to leave empty-handed, I picked up this handgun just to see how good their semi-autos are (or aren't, whatever the case may be). This one has the stainless slide, 4" barrel, and comes with two 17-round magazines. It is a polymer-framed DA/SA that can be carried cocked and locked, or de-cocked with the three-position safety lever on the left side of the frame. The picture above shows this lever in the "safe" position. It has "second strike" capability, which allows you to fire the handgun with a second pull of the trigger without having to reset, in case you have a round that does not go off due to a light strike. Sights are drift adjustable, and of the three white dot variety. The extractor also serves as an indicator for chamber condition, and there is a small red cocked/uncocked indicator at the back end of the slide. Loaded with 15 115gr. FMJ, this handgun weighs 35.2 oz.

The factory plastic case is small and plain, with thin foam padding. It is the "cheapest" factory case I've seen so far. I guess one cannot expect much for a price around $350. No big deal for me, since I will never use it. The instructions are printed in large brochure form, and are more comprehensive than some others I've seen that came with much more expensive handguns. There were also two keys for the internal lock that is located on the right side of the slide, and of course a handgun lock that will also never be used.

Handling the weapon for the first time, I am immediately struck by how good it feels in the hand. This fits me nearly perfectly, and points better than most other sidearm-sized handguns I have. The left side controls also fall neatly to thumb. The safety/de-cocker lever is easier for me to use than the other handguns I have. The "checkering" on both front and backstraps is just right. Very functional, but not too aggressive. Exterior fit and finish is very good, even excellent when you consider the price. One thing I found that I did not like is that when the three dots of the sights are lined up horizontally, the top of the front sight is slightly below the top of the rear sight. Not a big deal, but noticeable to this person who has done a lot of ISSF target shooting.

Cleaning for the first time revealed nothing unusual on the inside. There is a takedown lever on the left side that rotates clockwise about 90 degrees, and then pulls out from the left side. The recoil spring is a two-piece flatwound affair. The pistol was fairly clean inside, with some factory oil present. I think that it could have been used without an initial cleaning. One thing that stood out is that the feed ramp is nicely polished. Overall, it looks as good inside as more expensive handguns I've used. The only negative thing (possibly negative - I haven't decided for sure) is that the magazine release button would not go back to the normal position. It had to be pushed back into place from the right side. After running it back and forth about a dozen times, it then worked correctly. It seems that it's fit to the frame was a bit tighter than is usually seen.

At the range, the first thing noticed is how stiff the magazine springs are. The first few times I loaded the two magazines, I stopped at about 12 or 13 rounds. By the end of the shooting session, I could get 15 or 16 rounds in. Somewhat unusual, but nothing bad. The slide serrations work quite well, and are not overly aggressive. Before shooting the first shot, I de-cocked the weapon. This is done by pushing the safety lever up to safe, and then pushing it up even further to the de-cock position. The lever is spring-loaded, and will then return to the middle safe position after de-cocking. After switching off the safety, I proceeded to put the 12 rounds downrange at a target situated 10 yards away.

The pistol is shooting low and right. I then looked at the sights much more closely, and found out that the front sight is just a hair to the left. I did not bother to adjust the sight, but will do so in the near future. I think that the reason why I was hitting low is that I was using a normal target-shooting sight picture placed at the bottom of the target's red central area, instead of using the three white dots. By the third magazine, I was getting used to the long trigger pull, and put 10 of twelve rounds into the same hole, again at 10 yards. DA pull is long, and weighs 8 lbs. 2oz. SA pull has a fairly long takeup as well, and weighs 5 lbs. 5oz. Takeup for both pulls was free of grittiness and fairly consistent, until getting close to the end where there was some significant stacking.

I put 100 rounds through the handgun, stripped it down and gave it a quick cleaning, and then put 150 more rounds through it, also while shooting several other handguns so that it doesn't get too hot. There were no malfunctions of any kind. The magazine release button worked just fine as well. Overall accuracy seems to be perfectly suitable. Recoil was about what one would expect, and was very easily controlled. None of the control levers got in the way of my normal grip, which was not the case when I used one of their Millenium Pro's. I did not test how well the internal lock works, since I do not use the internal locks on any of my handguns that have this feature.

I came away more impressed with this handgun than I would have thought I would be. Not because I wasn't expecting it to work, as I already have one Taurus (an older 85 revolver) and do not count myself as a Taurus "basher". I just didn't think it would be such a nice handgun given it's $350 price tag. It was consistent and reliable, and as mentioned earlier it fits me superbly. I do not plan to use it as a concealed-carry weapon because of it's size. I do plan on using it as a range/fun/loaner gun, and also a home-defense handgun as long as it will feed another two or three-hundred rounds without any problem. The Taurus is my least-expensive centerfire semi-auto, but at this moment I like to shoot it better than some of my other more expensive handguns. I think it will make an excellent addition to our extensive collection of handguns. Not too bad at all, for a $350 handgun......

p.s. I have not been able to find a picture on the internet of this pistol. Even the catalog on the Taurus website shows the earlier version w/rubber grip inserts.

My wife purchased a 24/7 9mm pistol before taking her CHL course. She looked at several other guns including and XD, Glock, and a couple of revolvers. She settled on the 24/7 because it fit in her hand better than the others. When she bought it, she went ahead and bought a box of hollow points to keep in it for defense purposes. Even before firing any rounds through it, the JHPs fed without problem and cycled without incident when manually racking the slide. My PT145 did not like JHPs at all when I first got it, so I was definitely surprised and impressed.

A couple of days after purchasing it, we took it out and ran a box of shells through it. It's a sweet shooting little gun, and after getting used to the trigger, we were both hitting the center of the target at about 15 yards. About a week later my wife used it at her CHL course, and she's shot it several more times since then. Out of the 600-ish rounds that have been shot through it so far, there's only been one FTF and she's certain it was because she limp-wristed it. All it took to clear was a little pull on the slide and it seated fully and another pull of the trigger sent the projectile down range.

I know that there are some Taurus bashers out there, but of the two that my wife and I have owned, we've never had any problems with either of them. I'd highly recommend the 24/7 9mm to anyone in the market. Plus the idea of having a 17+1 semi-compact pistol makes me giggle when I think about it.

I know that there are some Taurus bashers out there, but of the two that my wife and I have owned, we've never had any problems with either of them. I'd highly recommend the 24/7 9mm to anyone in the market. Plus the idea of having a 17+1 semi-compact pistol makes me giggle when I think about it.

So far, no probs with either of my Taurus' (Taurii?) either. I'm not quite to the point where I would recommend them as a primary defense handgun (need more experience with it), but as a range or fun gun, absolutely. Hopefully my opinion will not change over the long run, but we'll see.